College football scheduling quirk

Big Ten released its night game schedule today.

Michigan State is hosting Iowa at 7 p.m. on October 24th.

Michigan State hosted Iowa last season too, it was the homecoming game.

Why do they get home games against Iowa in consecutive years. I can't remember this happening before.

I was under the impression that it alternated every year.

 

The Big 10 re-sets its conference schedule every two years. Each school drops two teams and picks up the two it hasn't played for two seasons.

For example, Iowa did not play Michigan and Ohio State the last two seasons. Those two will move back on to Iowa's schedule this year and two other schools will drop off.

When a new two-year rotation starts it's possible for a school to wind up making a second road trip in as many seasons to the same school.

 

What he said...

 

High schools set their schedules on two-year contracts, which means two teams could play in consecutive years at the same place under different contracts. In fact, that often means teams would play at the same field three years out of four.